im recording with a mxl .006 usb microphone home studio on adobe audition 1.5 basically when i record the sound wave looks lyk it has been compressed perfectly if you understand me but it wont go past -8db even if i scream down the mic and ive tryed turning the mic up on my computer but that does the same just at a higher decibel.

It does not have to do with Audition so I am forced to conclude it is either the mic or you aren't loud enough. Since anyone ought to be able to get up on a mic enough to hit red that leaves the mic.

The MXL "gain" setting is completely back asswards of normal attenuation switches. You want the "gain" set on high. It has a 16bit AD converter but it still conceivably might not provide enough true gain to get past -8db. These things weren't meant for music but more for podcasting.

adont know tho because the person i got it off before is one of my friends and i recorded a track at his house and it didnt do this and am deffinatly loud enough i had the switch on high and oh just because on the mxl website it says that mic was good for vocaling is there anything else it could be ?

how can i sort it then any ideas? it basically cuts at -8db wont go any higher and sounds distorted it didnt do it with my co1u that i had before but then it doesnt do this with this mic but at my friends house really frustrating

The default position for a track in Adobe Audition is 0db which is essentially unity. It will take whatever you are feeding it. If what it is being fed is no louder than -8db then that's it. One factor involved may be that Audition defaults to 32 bit floating point files. If you are feeding that with a 16 bit signal you will have more headroom than you can use up.

1-Why do you need to be louder than -8db? You will never find any reputable recording engineer that tells you to record hotter than the -6 to -12 range.

2-The fact you say the FFT looks perfectly compressed means either you have some FX turned on or you don't know what compression looks like. Or you have simply hit the limit of what the AD converters in the mic can produce.

3-Don't confuse your output volume with the recording volume. You don't have your friend's setup or DAW so it won't be identical. I guarantee that if you were in my studio and you brought me the wave file peaking at -8db it would be loud enough through my monitors.

4-Don't ever clip digital. If it sounds distorted then it is distorted. It can distort at the mic itself or at any amplification stage all the way to speakers.

I stand corrected. Thanks for the catch Hueseph. I understand whats going on now for sure but we'll let the OP read and understand too. I've used Audition since it was CE Pro and never encountered this so didn't think twice.

Hacked or cracked-all bets are off. I only help legit versions. I'm out.

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Shawty2k9: This is the stand of most if not all of the members of this forum. You will not get help to use Cracked software. I've paid for all the DAWs I'm using. I know how to get cracks. I know how to use them. It's up to the individual to choose not to use them.

Well then read the link and the solution will be evident. As to the explanation it still has to do with bit rates and onboard sound cards. The exact details of which won't concern you. The answer was however even quoted in the linked thread.

thanks well i had some asio drivers already and it was already set up 2 my mic but i re did it nad everything and i still get the problem thanks alot for your help everyone tho hopefully all your help wont go to waste soon

Download ASIO4All and give it a try. Also the workaround from the Adobe forum was to record a stereo track instead of a mono track then bounce it to a mono file.

If you had a real interface you would be using that driver instead, but it seems a USB mic does not actually use an ASIO driver- it hijacks the windows mobo driver which ports oddly as far as Audition is concerned.

The short version of what is happening is that the USB mic is perceived as the stereo center of a stereo signal-even though it isn't. It is being limited to -6db by the windows audio driver.